Girard-Perregaux Laureato: Buyer's Guide, References & Value | Ultimate Watch

The Laureato is the integrated-bracelet sports watch that collectors keep rediscovering, and every time they do, the same thing happens: they wonder why they slept on it. Girard-Perregaux launched it in 1975, the same window that produced the whole octagonal-bezel, steel-sports-watch category, and unlike most of its neighbors it was drawn, engineered, and built entirely in-house. The design language is unmistakable once you know it: an octagonal bezel with polished, chamfered flanks sitting on a circular flange, a tonneau case underneath, and a Clou de Paris (hobnail) dial that throws light in a way a plain sunburst never will. We buy and sell Laureatos every month at our counter on 47th Street, and the pattern is consistent. It wears smaller than the caliber suggests, it finishes at a level that reads well above its retail sticker, and it trades at a fraction of the money you would spend chasing the same silhouette from Geneva's two most famous names. If you want an in-house manufacture sports watch with real horological pedigree and no waitlist theater, this is the entry that rewards you for paying attention.